1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for User control of a life-cycle for rich-content data items. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for User creation and direction of a life-cycle for rich-content data items. Most particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for User creation and direction of a capture through publication and syndication life-cycle for rich-content data items.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term ‘rich-content’ refers to basic data that is enhanced and extended (i.e., “enriched”) to become the “information” that is required to support knowledge-based decisions and actions by different types of Users. For suppliers, transforming basic product-item data into the format and structure required of standards-based e-catalogs enables them to make their data available to more potential customers—thus “enriching” its value to the supplier. The customer wants to use familiar terms to search for and compare different products from different suppliers prior to selecting ones that best fit their needs. The customer's task is greatly simplified when the items have been “enriched” to support their decision making—i.e., items from different suppliers have been classified into similar groups, item descriptions and other data elements essential to searching and comparing have been standardized, user-familiar synonyms and product-brand-to-manufacturer links have been established to facilitate finding like items, and current images have been added to show the product. The catalog administrators are tasked with maintaining the catalog. The administrators need tools that facilitate their ability to “enrich” the content by making it complete, accurate and current. Tools that facilitate the administrators tasks include: global update functions, data transformation templates that can be re-used for data imports and exports, wizards that simplify pattern matching rule development, and links to external systems to obtain real-time pricing.
As described above, the term “rich-content” has a multi-dimensional nature. The information in each dimension has been upgraded, enhanced, or enriched, beyond the basic data, to better enable different “Users” to carry out their tasks—i.e., supplying, using, maintaining—related to the information.
An example of rich-content is the enhanced content of a set of one or more catalogs of products and services associated with a supply chain. This set of catalogs comprises a rich-content repository that identifies and describes what is available from the suppliers participating in the supply chain, how it is available (some purchasers want to buy only from certain vendors), defines equivalents for what is available (generics for drugs), etc.
Rich-content is created and maintained using a life-cycle model comprising a set of pre-determined stages having a pre-determined ordering. A user can include all the Users associated with the rich-content life-cycle, including owners, suppliers, buyers, sellers, and publishers, i.e., any rich-content data source and sink.
Typically, a subject matter expert developing rich-content catalogs and repositories has to personally review incoming or outgoing data records and manually make the complex changes to these data records that are needed to meet various pre-determined information processing requirements. Input data records comprise low level data that is not coded, organized or formatted to support decision-making. Rich-content results when these input data records are converted into higher level information that is coded, organized, and formatted to support decision-making. This conversion is critical to the effective use of the resulting rich-content information by users, for example, by all the users involved in a supply chain process. This ability to capture and automate the use of the subject matter expert's domain knowledge is essential to the cost effective development, use, and ongoing management of rich-content catalogs and repositories.
When the subject matter expert has to perform conversion tasks manually it is time and resource intensive, it often leads to poor data quality, and it is costly for all concerned. The quality of catalog content directly impacts the effectiveness of buy and sell-side processes and related data processing applications, as well as traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The information stored within a catalog is only useful if it can be found and can be related to internal data processing programs and the enterprise's policies and procedures. If content is of poor quality, end-Users (buyers) tend to not use their rich-content systems and resort to maverick (i.e., off-contract) spending (in the case of a procurement application). In such a scenario, any benefits of price discounts, strategic sourcing, vendor contract compliance, vendor performance measurement, and other cost savings of ownership are lost. Furthermore, the accuracy of an enterprise's financial reporting and financial statements can be impaired by the miss-categorization of fixed assets, consumables, services, or other categories of information.
Typical rich-content systems use a fixed life-cycle to manage the process of (1) obtaining data from disparate supplier sources and (2) creating therefrom a rich-content repository that can be used throughout an enterprise and not just as an e-catalog that supports an e-commerce platform. That is, systems exist having fixed life-cycles for providing an e-catalog of rich-content that synergizes with sellers' and buyers' business practices. However, the Users of such systems do not have any direct control over how the rich-content synergizes with their business practices. One of the most critical components of any purchasing or selling process, or online or e-business strategy is the electronic catalog of products and services utilized for buy and sell side applications, sourcing, and inventory control and ERP systems. If items are not represented properly in an electronic catalog, any system employing the catalog can be rendered useless and frustrate Users. Therefore, User-defined customization of rich-content data definition and synergy with business practices is critical to meeting supplier, end-User, customer, and marketplace requirements for both internal processing and external, competitive standards.
By way of example only and not in any limiting sense, a typical rich-content repository is an e-catalog. The typical e-catalog system comprises a fixed method or life-cycle for building a rich-content e-catalog of products and their vendors. The input data describing each product and at least one associated vendor/supplier is provided by one or more product suppliers in many industries and can be in many different legacy formats. A typical life-cycle for a rich-content repository can include one or more phases or stages devoted to creation, classification, standardization, maintenance, and publication. One system, disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/705,923 to Johnson, et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, uses a knowledge base of patterns for categorizing goods and services into families described by a common language generator or CLG. The method by Johnson et al. may include at least one step for aggregating the syntax and semantics of at least one product supplier's database, data, and administration processes and at least one step for transforming the aggregated items into a normalized form or pattern. These normalized forms or patterns are then used by at least one further step to define, populate, and administer the e-catalog database created from source data from at least this one product supplier's legacy database(s). The life-cycle of an e-catalog taught by Johnson et al. is fixed, providing no direct User control. User provided descriptions of products and services are analyzed for common patterns (contained in the knowledge base), normalized (standardized) in accordance with the rules of the knowledge base and then added to the e-catalog.
A typical e-catalog system provides Users with a fixed life-cycle system for creating and maintaining a rich-content repository. A typical life-cycle, as illustrated in FIG. 1A, comprises a fixed-order series of pre-determined processing stages and Users of the system are associated with at least one of these life-cycle stages:
1. Data Aggregation 118—consists of importing 100, standardizing 101 and validating 102 (1) incoming content data and (2) schema files and their inclusion as appendages to specified branches of an existing schema, as well as (3) historical data from accounting and procurement systems. Historical data may be processed for strategic spending analysis, vendor contract compliance, scope analysis, and to develop business processes, policies and procedures relating to both the e-catalog system as well as internally to the User's enterprise.
Incoming content 100 may be received in different electronic formats and file types as well as non-electronic form. Such non-electronic form may include paper catalogs, data-sheets, material data safety sheets, etc. 2. Rich-content creation 116—includes multiple successive activities: Schema Definition 104, Item Classification 105, Pattern Building and Value-extraction 106, and Quality Assurance 107 and includes manual additions and modifications to items, definition of synonyms, definition of accessory information, and the association of items across different schemas.
2. Data Transformation 124—comprises using and extending a referencing schema 104 of categories for enabling classification of rich-content data items. Usually, These categories comprise classes and sub-classes in a parent-child relationship structure. Data items are categorized within respective classes or subclasses based on their features/properties. These features/properties are termed “Attributes”.
3. Catalog Administration 123 and Publishing 125—comprises definition and maintenance of critical administrative information. This administration information typically includes User and Group profiling 119, price markup definition 121, product view definition 120, authorizations, formatting, syntax, and other attributes as may be required by Users or enterprises. The catalogs can be “Published” 109 to a Catalog Browser Web Application 112 or any electronic data processing system which can accept such data, or can be “Syndicated” 111 to Users and customers, or can be viewed in various electronic and paper reports and analyses.
Some rich-content systems synergize with systems through the use a workflow engine to allow a rich-content publisher's authorized personnel to approve any changes made on rich-content items and re-publish or syndicate the changes.
4. Catalog Maintenance 113—comprises definition and management of rich-content items within an already published rich-content repository. Rich-content items can be added or existing items can be modified or deleted. Items are moved, copied and associated across different schema locations in a variety of specified different ways.
5. Catalog Browser WEB Application 112—comprises browsing and navigation of published rich-content repositories. Shoppers use the published rich-content repository to purchase available items or request quotes for non-available items.
6. Data Syndication 111—comprises exporting of rich-content to customers in different file formats. The rich-content repository is wholly or partially exported in a format specified by the User.
Existing systems provide almost no control of the structure and content of the rich-content life-cycle, which is fixed by a publisher of the rich-content.